Hi!
I’m an international student and I’ve been admitted to Georgetown SFS as an international politics major, UCLA as a pre-global studies major, and USC as international relations major with a merit scholarship.
However, I will most likely be changing my major to something related to business or communications.
Which of the schools above would be the best option disregarding costs?
Some factors that I am looking for are good social life/campus culture (possibly greek life), variety of clubs (dance, service), school spirit, class size, reputation/prestige of the school, access to internships, and the international student community.
I’ll quickly jot down the pros and cons I’ve been considering for each school.
Georgetown
pro: name value, location, great business program
con: less social(?), bad dining and dorms
UCLA
pro: very social, variety of club options, location and weather
con: large class size, quarter system
USC
pro: can apply for better housing, good business school
con: surrounding area, not a great reputation, somewhat toxic greek life
Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!
I go to Georgetown, know folks at the others. All of the schools have a good reputation so you don’t need to worry about that. I’d also avoid choosing schools based on factors like dorms or the academic calendar.
What this comes down to is the tradeoff between a medium sized school like Georgetown and a large one like UCLA/USC. They all very much have a social life, but you’re going to have more frat parties with hundreds of people and football games with thousands at UCLA and especially USC. But, there’s less of a unified/small seeming campus community and classes are larger. USC is wealthier than UCLA, so keep that in mind in terms of fellow students and having somewhat less huge class sizes.
Also, there’s a bit of a difference between the west coast and east coast culture which carries to the schools. If you’re not super familiar with that aspect of the US, google it.
Finally, for Georgetown, if you want to do business but keep some of the international aspect, check out the new Business and Global Affairs joint program between the SFS and business school.
What kind of business major would disregard costs?
I’d choose between Georgetown and USC depending on geographical preference and costs.
@somewhere2022, you stated the following:
USC is wealthier than UCLA, so keep that in mind in terms of fellow students and having somewhat less huge class sizes.
Actually USC and UCLA have fairly comparable endowments, and both are significantly larger than Georgetown’s. UCLA has been finishing in the top-10 and sometimes in the top-5 in the last handful of years edit: in fundraising.
And doesn’t GT have large classes also? Class size is not necessarily a private v. public university question; it’s one of research- v. teaching-based universities.
The differential @rmadeline , is that you’re getting merit from USC. Go to USC, unless your parents have money to burn.
I don’t think you should rate pros of programs you haven’t been accepted to…how easy is it to transfer to McDonough or Marshall? Is everyone who meets the requirements able to change schools, or is it competitive?
UCLA doesn’t have traditional business majors…just econ/business econ, and I don’t know if those majors are capped or not, you have to look into that.
What are the net costs of each option? For the more expensive options would you have to take out debt (or more debt)?